Wayne Rooney's departure from Manchester United is nightmare scenario for Glazers

There is a train of thought in Manchester that Wayne Rooney’s decision to
abandon contract talks at Manchester United would have been greeted with the
sound of champagne corks popping 4,000 miles away in Florida.

Poster boy: Wayne Rooney's box-office star quality is a major part of the Manchester United brandPhoto: PA

After all, with the club’s debt stretching beyond £720 million and annual interest payments in excess of £40 million, the Glazer family could safely tick off the next repayment by banking £50 million with the sale of United’s No 1 asset and arguably Old Trafford’s sole remaining platinum player.

The £80 million received from the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid in June 2009 remains largely unspent, but supporters’ groups vehemently opposed to the Glazers’ ownership of the club remain convinced that the bulk of that money will soon be siphoned off to reduce the Americans’ escalating PIK debt.

But while a simplistic analysis of the Rooney saga supports the theory that any money earned by the sale would be ploughed into servicing the Glazers’ debt, the reality is that Rooney’s exit would be a nightmare scenario for United’s owners.

Even the harshest critic of the Glazers would find it difficult to dismiss their success in ‘sweating’ the United brand since their takeover in 2005.

Turnover from commercial revenues has rocketed and United’s London-based army of sponsorship seekers has generated more than £150 million in off-field income in just under three years.

The reason for this is United’s success as a global brand and the box-office star quality of their leading players. The Glazers are under no illusions that the driving force of their off-field growth is Sir Alex Ferguson’s first team and the players on the pitch.

United without Rooney would continue to attract the global partnerships they have been so successful in thrashing out, but allowing Rooney to follow Ronaldo and Carlos Tévez out of Old Trafford would leave Ferguson’s team devoid of stardust and, more worryingly, short of the quality required to keep United at the forefront of English and European football.

If the wheels come off on the pitch, the spectre of losing Champions League prize money begins to loom. Without that, servicing the debt could become an issue.

So rather than sell Rooney and divert the proceeds to the debt, the Glazers know that the only option is to hand the money straight back to Ferguson to invest in another A-list player. But how many are available and how many would leave Barcelona, Real Madrid or, perish the thought, Manchester City to become United’s new Rooney?

The Glazers might just be best advised to loosen the purse strings and move closer to matching Rooney’s wage demands, however eye-watering they might be.